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Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Christmas Is About Your Eternity BY RICK WARREN — DECEMBER 23, Wednesday

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12 NLT, second edition)

Turn on your television or surf the Web this Christmas, and you’ll discover all sorts of Christmas messages. But for the One who invented Christmas — God — there’s only one message that really matters.

God wants to share eternity with you.

That’s what Christmas is all about. You weren’t created just to live 80 or 90 years on Earth and then die. You’re far more valuable than that to God. God has some long-range plans for you. He made you to live forever.

One day your heart will stop. That’ll be the end of your heart, but it won’t be the end of you. You’ll last for eternity — trillions of years! And God wants you to be a part of his family.

He sent Jesus to Earth as a baby so one day he could die for your sins, and then you can spend forever with him.

That’s the great news of Christmas. This offer is available to anyone. The Bible says of Jesus, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NLT, second edition).

God wants to spend eternity with you, so he made the way to him simple: You believe, and you receive. You believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and you receive him into your life. God sent his Son to Earth 2015 years ago to die for you. That’s God’s very first Christmas gift, sent to you thousands of years before you were even born.

Honestly, celebrating Christmas and not receiving the number one gift God has for you is dumb. Do that, and you’re missing the point entirely. Acts 10:35 says, “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from — if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open” (MSG).

No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, you’ve got a place in God’s forever family ready and waiting for you. The invitation is wide open. Just believe and receive.

Are you ready? What are you waiting for?

You can learn more about how you can believe and accept the Good News about Jesus on my website at rickwarren.org/know-god. Please let me know if you make the decision to follow Jesus. I’d like to pray for you! Write me at rick@rickwarren.org.